FORT WALTON BEACH — Sheila Morgan still remembers the moment her name was called and she stepped forward to get her pirate hat crown.
The 73-year-old woman was named Miss Captive Queen in 1956 and says she wore her crown proudly with her homemade pirate costume.
“I was kind of flabbergasted when they said I won,” the Foley, Ala., resident said. “There were a lot of nice girls, and I just, you know, you always think, ‘Well, somebody’s going to win, but it’s not going to be me.’”
View photo gallery of this year's Bowlegs >>
See photos of the 1956 Bowlegs celebration. >>
The Playground News printed a story about then-16-year-old Sheila Ann Lewis, describing her as a “green-eyed gal” who was named Miss Birmingham Baron just one month before the Billy Bowlegs Festival’s beauty contest.
Morgan said the competition included several interviews with members of the Fort Walton Beach Jaycees along with a luncheon. She was named Miss Captive Queen at the Billy Bowlegs Ball. At the time, it was only the third Bowlegs Festival to take place.
That year was the first year the Bowlegs Krewe invited young women to participate in the beauty contest, said Ted Corcoran, CEO and president of the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce.
In previous years, Bowlegs Krewe members would find the prettiest girls on the beach and ask them to pretend to be captured in exchange for prizes such as televisions and jewelry. The young women would be kidnapped from the beach and then brought to the contest to compete.
“The captain that year went on the beach, picked up a pretty girl and enticed her with baubles and such,” Corcoran said. “After two years of that, Krewe members said we can’t do that any more and they started doing a more legitimate contest.”
Morgan said she was asked to prepare a pirate costume for the pageant and came ready to answer questions and have a good time.
“I remember my mother made my top, which was a thin-stripped taffeta, and she made a silk red scarf for my hair and a silk red scarf with gold trim to go around my waist,” she recalled. “I bought the shorts and just cut them up.
“I went barefoot throughout the whole thing, so it was kind of fun.”
As her prize, Morgan received a $50 gift certificate and was asked to come back the following year to pass the crown onto the next queen.
When she came back in 1957 she said some additional entertainment had been added to Bowlegs such as a water skiing competition from Mobile Bay to Fort Walton Beach.
“It was a really big deal at the time,” she said. “It’s been neat to see how they’ve expanded the festival every year.”
Morgan said she and her husband will make the short drive from Foley to Fort Walton Beach this weekend to participate in the festival.
“You’ve just got to go to Billy Bowlegs,” Morgan said with a laugh. “You never know what will happen.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Angel McCurdy at 850-315-4432 or amccurdy@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AngelMnwfdn.
